Red Bulls Go Down a Man in Second Half as Playoff Hopes Slip Away

New York Red Bulls, Professional, Soccer

September 4, 2023

Another tough match on the road for the New York Red Bulls leaves their playoff hopes quickly slipping away. Faced with adversity late in the first half, New York dropped their third consecutive game to the second-place Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park and fell to a 7-8-12 record.
The Red Bulls struck first in the 11th minute, scoring their only goal of the night in the 4-1 loss. Midfielder Omir Fernandez scored off his own rebound after the shot deflected right back to him and he buried it in the bottom right. Philadelphia answered back in the 29th minute after defender Jakob Glesnes directed the ball through traffic off of a corner kick.

Early game fouls proved to be detrimental for the Red Bulls as captain Sean Nealis picked up a yellow card in the sixth minute, and another one in the 44th after an unfortunate handball as the ball deflected off his arm. New York’s head coach Troy Lesesne earned himself a yellow card after arguing with the officials about the Nealis' call.

Lesesne has now accumulated enough yellows and will be suspended in their next match against NYCFC.
Coach Lesesne commented on New York’s first-half performance and losing Nealis for the second half.

“I got to say I was really pleased with our first half prior to Sean being sent off,” Lesesne said. “I think that we came out and a really good fashion and there's a lot of times where we're defending really hard. Philly is a very good team, they're obviously going to have their chances and their phases in the game where they test us.”

New York went into the second half surprisingly aggressive, considering they were playing with 10 men. Instead of parking the bus, the Red Bulls were quick to rifle off a few shots, but Union goalkeeper Andre Blake did his job well and earned himself three saves. New York’s aggressive style of play was quickly subdued in the 57th minute after defender Damion Lowe and forward Julian Carranza scored Philadelphia’s second and third goals just a minute apart.

The Red Bulls’ defense seemed out of place in the second half after losing their lead center back. Defender John Tolkin was forced to act as a sort of left-center back as New York shifted to what looked like a 3-4-2 formation. The team’s energy seemed to quickly dissipate through the rest of the match and was at an all-time low by the 76th minute when midfielder Daniel Gazdag scored the Union’s fourth and final goal.

The Red Bulls knew this would be no easy contest facing one of the top teams in the Easter Conference. New York went into the match only surrendering 71 shots in 25 matches, the lowest in the MLS. They held the Union to 11 shots (six on goal,) but that didn’t stop Philadelphia, who has the third-best goal differential in the league (+19) from scoring four of their own.

New York's scoring struggles continue to be an issue for them as they can’t seem to find the back of the net as much as they should. The Red Bulls had 14 shots (four on goal,) but were only able to finish on one. Fernandez’s goal early in the game was New York’s first goal in the last three matches.
Tolkin had a message for fans after the match, which is that there are still seven games left and a lot to fight for.

“I think for the people watching tonight, you know, it was not the prettiest, the result did not go our way but like said I still think that fight was still there and we were still going for goals even down a man,” Tolkin said. “We are going to give everything to get over the playoff line, the playoff line is a minimum for us and we have shown that over the last 13 years, so you can expect hard work 100% and yeah, look guys we want to get there too, so just believe in us and we need you guys most importantly.”

The soccer world now heads into the FIFA International break that will run from Monday, September 4 until Sunday, September 10. The Red Bulls will return from the break to clash against NYCFC on Saturday, September 16 for the third New York Derby of the year. The Red Bulls look to get out of this losing streak and to start getting some goals if they have any hopes of a wild card spot.